Life is war

Life is war

Not war

There is a tendency to fight.

Some poor boys die for it

The less we know about it the better

So say the gerrymanders

Heads buried

In a gunny sack

Horses for courses

All of them supping from the same trough

Using the same method to breathe

The birds fly in one direction

Until the guns are fired

When they scatter

Further than afar

Like the frightened souls they are

Why do some run toward danger

When the rest of us

Dive for cover.

The world is full of survivors

Heroes are flawed

A coward can do the right thing

Even by default.

The grass grows over everything

As the sun looks on

Pretty fields all in a row

Nobody would know

What trouble looked like

If they hadn’t seen it

With their own eyes.

Nothing is left to the imagination

In a firefight

Why do they start

Who lit the torch

Can it be Prometheus

Who brought the wrath of the gods

Upon us?

What an easy way

To lay the blame

On another poor soul

Who has already paid the price.

Go easy on excess

Stand by your beds

Until the headcount

There is no sense in any of this.

Run and be damned

Stand and be fooled

There is no solidarity

We are not in this thing together.

Brass necks

Tentatively stuck out

Are quickly wound back

When the culling starts

And the red blood flows.

It is in the nature

Of a war game

For the loudest voice

To come from the back of the room.